


All At Once

by minnesotamemelord



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Accidents, Break Up, Broken Bones, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Fights, Flashbacks, Fucked Up, Gen, Martial Arts, Sort Of, Training, also diego, and idk this just came to me, brotherly break up, i love Luther yeah he fucks up but he’s my son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 08:26:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnesotamemelord/pseuds/minnesotamemelord
Summary: Diego and Luther didn’t actually always hate each other. They used to be best friends. That is, until Luther threw Diego out a third-story window.





	All At Once

One part of the attic had been transformed into a training center straight out of an 80s martial arts movie. Practice mats on the floor, punching bags hanging from the ceiling. That was where they heldhand-to-hand combat practice. Nobody ever won against Luther in those practices, except for Allison and Five, who had each won once. Unfortunately, Luther learned to wear earplugs when he fought Allison, and he learned to tire Five out before a fight so he couldn’t teleport. Ben probably could have beaten him too, but Luther refused to fight him. Despite all of them being exactly the same age, Luther had been sort of a big brother to Ben, who needed someone to run to after he unleashed the beast, so to speak.

“Number One and Number Two! You’re up.” Reginald stepped back off the mat, still scribbling notes from the last fight. Allison had beaten Five by a narrow margin, only because Five’s earplugs had fallen out during one of his spatial jumps.

“Never let your guard down, Number Five. Your enemies will not hesitate to exploit any weakness they see,” Reginald had said as Five picked himself up off the mat. Luther and Diego took his place, Umbrella Academy emblazoned sweatshirts pushed up to their elbows.

“Ready, set... fight!” Reginald shouted like a boxing match emcee. Luther grabbed Diego, meaning to twist him into a headlock, but Diego slipped past him, narrowly avoiding Luther’s counterintuitively wiry grasp. He hit Luther with a half-dozen kidney punches in quick succession, ducking the roundhouse kick aimed back at him. The next one did hit him, squarely in the ribs, as did the next, before he brought Diego to his knees with a 360 kick to the chest. Diego aimed a punch at Luther’s thigh, then kicked out, sweeping his legs out from under him. Luther hit the floor with a grunt, but was back up in a flash. He and Diego circled each other, both limping considerably more than when they started. And then, before Diego could blink, Luther was flying through the air, legs twisting around Diego’s neck, and then Diego was flat on the ground, Luther’s legs still squeezing the life out of him. Diego struggled, but there wasn’t a chance in hell of him escaping this.

“Three, two, one... Number One has won.” Finally, Luther released Diego.

“Nice job, man. You put up a good fight.” Luther stood and offered Diego his hand, which he took.

“That’s enough for today, I think.” Reginald folded his hands neatly around his notes. “Number Two, you’d do well to stop letting Number One get the best of you like that. You’ll never win if you can’t defend yourself.” With that, he left, trailed by the other four children. Diego crumpled to the floor, still panting heavily.

“What a dick,” he said, laughing breathlessly.

“He’s not wrong, though,” replied Luther, as quick to defend their father as ever. “Want to get a little more practice in before dinner?”

“Not really.”

“Come on. How good would it feel to win a match? Even if you can’t beat me.”

“Oh, you wanna bet?” Grinning wickedly, Diego got to his feet. “Alright, let’s go.”

“Ready... set... fight!” Luther called out, imitating Reginald as best he could. Diego made the first move this time, sliding under Luther’s outstretched arms, grabbing his forearm as he crouched and twisting it as fast as he could, flipping Luther onto his back. Before his brother had time to react, he rolled Luther into his back and held his arm fast.

“You done yet?” He asked, pride and smugness riding into his voice.

“Not even close.” Luther wrenched his arm free and pushed himself to standing, inadvertently slamming into Diego’s face. Diego heard something in his face crack and felt something warm trickle down over his lips.

“Oh, shit, Luther.”

“You’re fine, man. Come on.” Luther leaped at him, covering Diego with his entire body, and the two of them slammed into the floor. Luther quickly rolled on top of Diego and slammed his fists into Diego’s gut.

“Ow. Shit, man, I’m done.”

“Wuss.” Diego brought his arm up and elbowed Luther hard in the thigh, causing him to loosen up just enough for Diego to squirm free.

“I told you, I’m do-“ Luther grabbed him by the arm and pulled him around, actually bringing Diego’s feet off the floor. He whipped him around, expecting him to just fall back onto the mat. However, unfortunately for him and especially for Diego, Luther didn’t know the full extent of his strength, so when he released Diego, he flew across the room, shattered the window, and disappeared from view.

“Oh shit oh shit oh fuck shit shit shit-“ Luther rushed to the window, leaning out over the jagged glass, and his breath hitched in his throat. Diego was sprawled on the sidewalk, almost all of his limbs twisted at awkward angles, a steadily growing pool of blood beneath his head.

“Oh my god. Diego.” He slipped out the window, ignoring everywhere the glass sliced him, and lept to the ground thirty feet below, wincing at the pain that shot through his legs as he hit the cement sidewalk. “MOM! POGO! DAD!” He screamed as he knelt at Diego’s side. Pogo arrived first, sprinting to them.

“Good lord, Master Luther, what happened?”

“Please.” Luther ignored the question. “We have to get him inside.”

“Very well. Grace, get a stretcher. We must hurry.”

 

When Diego woke up, he nearly screamed at the pure agony courting through him. It felt like his blood had been replaced with acid. It faded quickly, though, as painkillers flooded into him.

“M-Mom?” He saw Grace first, standing over him, looking more concerned than ever before.

“Diego. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“What-“ Diego began to ask a question, and then his memories came back. The fight. The window. The total darkness as his head smashed into the sidewalk. “Oh.”

“Yes. You’ve been out for over a day. We had to keep you sedated so we could set your injuries.” For the first time, Diego looked down at himself. Almost every square inch of his body was covered in bandages or casts, so much so that he could hardly bend his fingers. “You’re quite lucky, Diego.” Grace’s voice softened as she leaned down, running her fingers over his hair like she used to do when he was younger and couldn’t sleep. “Your legs and right arm are broken, as well as several of your ribs, but your spine and skull are just bruised. It could have been so much worse.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Mom.” Pleased with herself, Grace straightened up.

“If you’re feeling up to it, I know your siblings would like to see you. They were all quite worried about you.”

“Sure. I guess.” Grace went to the door and slipped out. She was gone for a few moments. When she returned, Allison came in behind her, rushing to Diego.

“Oh my god, Diego, are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?” She giggled, relieved by the presence of his usual sarcastic wit.

“No. But you’re alive.”

“Yeah. I’m alive.” Diego’s eyes moved past her to the much taller figure behind her. Luther’s head hung low, and though Diego couldn’t quite see his eyes, the shame on his face was apparent.

“Shit, D, we thought we lost you for a minute there. And, I mean, for me, that’s not an issue, but still. I’m glad you’re alive.” Klaus reached out to squeeze Diego’s shoulder, but upon seeing the bandages, thought better of it.

“Me too,” Ben piped up from under Klaus’s arm. Vanya nodded silently beside them. Her eyes were rimmed in red, like she’d been crying. Five stepped forward from his place between Klaus and Luther.

“Not sure what we would have done if we’d lost you, Diego. Glad we don’t have to think about it.” Diego managed a smile, although it probably looked more like a grimace.

“Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.” Allison looked at him, then everyone else, then back at Luther.

“Hey, guys? Why don’t we give Luther and Diego a minute?”

“Come on, Allison, can’t we hang out a little longer?” Klaus put on his best pouty face and puppy dog eyes. They didn’t seem to deter her.

“I heard a rumor-“

“Fine, fine, we’re going.” Klaus left, grabbing Five by the arm and pulling him along. Allison looked between Diego and Luther one last time as she stood in the doorway, but said nothing.

Luther lowered himself into the chair next to Diego and folded his hands in his lap. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He didn’t seem sure what to say. Finally, he just said, “I’m sorry.”

“You’re what?”

“I’m so, so, so sorry, Diego. I never meant for this to happen. I didn’t think-“

“Yeah, you didn’t think, Luther. You never think. You’re all brawn and no brains, I guess. But you know what? Not everyone has super strength, Luther.” In that moment, despite the fact that none of them were actually biologically related, Diego looked just like Five. They had the same heat behind their eyes, the same sharp tone, the same bitter expression on their faces. “I told you to stop. I told you. But you didn’t listen, because you never do. And I couldn’t make you stop because I don’t have super strength. I can’t just tell you to stop. I can’t teleport out of your way, or use the eldritch monster hidden inside me to throw you off.”

“Don’t bring Ben into this.”

“I am gonna bring Ben into this, because he’s powerful. And I can’t even use not having powers as an excuse not to fight because I do. I can’t do jack shit with them, but I have them, so here I am, fighting alongside a half-dozen people more powerful than me and know it, and I can’t do shit.” Diego pounded his fists into the bed, ignoring the pin that flared up when he did. “I told you to stop, but you were so focused on beating me that you couldn’t pull your head out of your ass long enough to see that I was beat. I was beat a long time ago. And I think I just needed a friend so bad that I was willing to let you beat me over and over again. But I can’t do that. I’m done.” Luther hung his head again.

“I didn’t want to fight you.”

“Huh?”

“I said, ‘I didn’t want to fight you.’”

“Yeah, I heard it. What do you mean?”

“I meant that I know I’m stronger than you.”

“No shit.”

“Yeah, so I hate fighting you and Klaus, because I know you can’t stop me. But Dad says we have to, so I do.”

“That’s your problem. You do whatever Dad says. You’re just like him.” Diego spit out the last word and looked straight up at the ceiling.

“No. I’m not.”

“Whatever, Luther. Come talk to me when you make your own damn decisions.” And so Luther left, and Diego felt the tears stream down his cheeks. Whether that was the right decision or not, he did realize something. He had gone through that whole speech without stuttering. That made him smile, just a little bit.

That was the end of a thirteen-year friendship. Luther spent all his time with Allison, while Diego found himself becoming Klaus’s other half. They didn’t speak unless they had to. Diego’s body healed little by little until he could go on missions again, but there was always a little piece missing after that. That little piece got bigger and bigger with time, especially with Five’s disappearance, and then Ben’s death. By the time Diego was seventeen, he wasn’t even sure who he was. So he left. And that was that.


End file.
